of strength on a lot of these things. i think the president takes his job seriously too. going overthefiscalcliffis not good for anyone. it bothers me sometimes if i hear people on both the left and the right entertain this is something that might be good politics. may be good politics for somebody, but it's bad economics for the american economy and more important for people looking for a job and people trying to hold on to a job. >> last question. i want to go back to the premise that you and other republican members of the house would be willing to allow that top tier tax rate to go higher. you know, speaker boehner's argument all this time is that it doesn't effect just those top-earning americans, but it also effects the small business owners in this country. the job creators in this country. >> the speaker's right about that. >> is that valid anymore? >> i'm not willing to -- i don't want to raise those. >> but you're willing to at least talk about it right now? >> they go up automatically. the sun's going to come up in the east tomorrow morning and set in the west. doesn't mean i ha